Serving signals

ABSTRACT

Output signals are served from a serving device to a plurality of browsing devices connected to a network. The output signals represent commands executable by each browsable device so as to display viewable data in accordance with specified page formatting. Requests from browsing clients are identified which contain information relating to the data itself and the display format for the data. The data is read and processed so as to combine a representation of the viewable data with executable instructions. The signals are then supplied to requesting browsing devices, after effectively being assembled as a real time o-line process.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/003,458, filed Dec. 6, 2004, pending; which is a divisional of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/920,803, filed Aug. 3, 2001, now U.S.Pat. No. 6,961,737; which is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 08/647,769, filed May 15, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,295,530;which claims priority of Great Britain Patent Application No. 9509828filed May 15, 1995. Other related cases of this family are U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/223,467, filed Aug. 20, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No.6,826,565; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/145,997, filed Jun. 7,2005, pending; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/145,998, filed Jun.7, 2005, pending; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/______, filed Feb.17, 2006, pending (Attorney Docket No. 1561-94); U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/______, filed Feb. 17, 2006 (Attorney Docket No. 1561-95);and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/______, filed Feb. 17, 2006(Attorney Docket No. 1561-97). The entire contents of these applicationsare incorporated herein by reference.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

(NOT APPLICABLE)

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to serving signals to browsing clients,wherein said signals represent commands executable by said browsingclients for generating structured pages of human viewable data.

2. Related Art

The serving of human viewable data in response to client requests hasbeen known for some years in the field of cable television systems. Startype systems in particular allow viewers to make selections resulting inremote switching being performed so as to route a selected signal from adistribution head to the requesting viewer. Cable television systems areusually based on standard broadcast television signals and, as a result,a substantial transmission bandwidth is required in order to provideeach viewable page of data. Recently, attempts have been made tocompress video data, by implementing recommendations using standardssuch as MPEG, so as to facilitate the distribution of video signals overchannels of substantially less bandwidth. Thus, it is now possible totransmit low quality video signals over conventional telephone linesusing temporal and spatial compression techniques.

It has also been possible to distribute human viewable data in the formof encoded text for a number of years. The transmission of text, oftenusing ASCII coding, requires substantially less bandwidth than thetransmission of video signals and for a number of years data of thistype has been transmitted over conventional telephone cables.

A problem with transmitting conventional data text, compared to imagerelated video signals, is that the quality of presentation and overallgraphical format is significantly impaired. For this reason,traditionally, the transmission of data, as distinct from video, hastended to develop only in specialist fields where presentation was notconsidered particularly important. Very often, for example, the databeing received would be considered as being quite valuable and veryoften it would be possible to justify the re-typing of information asand when required.

A further problem with the dissemination of data is that many standardsand conventions have developed over the years. Therefore, traditionally,users have needed to develop techniques for accessing different datasources, which in itself has tended to become a specialist activity.

In parallel with the tendency towards bandwidth reduction in thetransmission of video signals, there has also been a tendency towardsimproving the graphical format, structure and presentation of what wouldnormally be considered as textural data. Thus, although data may betransmitted within a text-based environment, such as within theinternationally accessible network known as the “Internet”, there hasbeen a tendency towards including formatting structures such that asubstantially data-driven source could be viewed by a user on equipmentwhich would present the data in a form substantially similar to that ofa video image. Thus, the two arts of video signal processing and imagedata processing are coming closer together and reaching towards a commonaim of providing what appears to be a high resolution, high bandwidth,high quality image by transmitting data over low bandwidth transmissionmedia.

For a number of years, cable television systems have been used toprovide in-home shopping facilities and, given their two-waycapabilities, it is possible to install a level of interactivity withinsuch systems. On-line systems facilitate a higher level of interactivityand, in addition to making particular selections in response to imagesbeing broadcast, it is also possible to select particular image pages bybrowsing through catalogues and tree structures etc. Thus, given anability to display high quality images, similar to those availablethrough video based systems, on-line systems present environments withsubstantially more interactive capabilities. However, it is appreciatedthat in many of these environments the quality of images must besignificantly enhanced in order to attain a broad customer base.

A known way of improving the quality of images derived from text-basedsystems is to add formatting commands or instructions to data strings.These instructions control operations of a receiver, such that thesignals are processed in such a receiver, to ensure that the transmittedsignals are processed in such a way as to generate a high quality videoimage that is capable of being displayed at a requesting client'sterminal.

In addition to improving the quality of displayed images, such anapproach also facilitates an improvement in system compatibility. Thus,the incoming control signals are executed by a receiver's terminal in away that is compatible with the receiving system. Thus, the outputsignals may be considered as executable instructions that causeoperations to be performed upon the viewable data in accordance with thelocal constraints.

Thus, the use of systems of this type must be distinguished from simplelocal database systems in which all operations of the system are locallycontrolled and no account whatsoever needs to be taken of remotefacilities and characteristics. Such systems are significantly differentin that database systems only transfer data that is subsequentlymanipulated by controlling programs. In mark-up languages the formattingcommands are embedded in the form of executable commands, executable atthe receiving station, so as to perform operations upon the viewabledata supported by the local platform and peripherals.

Mark-up languages of this type may also include other capabilitiespreviously not found in simple data distribution systems. In particular,a highly valued additional feature is the ability to automaticallyreceive additional files from anywhere within the overall network. Sucha procedure is possible because, as previously stated, the mark-uplanguage is effectively executed by the local platform and theseexecutable procedures may include procedures for making external callsto files held anywhere within the accessible network.

From a user's point of view, such links may be considered as providing alevel of multi-dimensionality within a viewable document in that aparticular word or phrase may be selected, whereafter an expansion isprovided or related documents are identified. In order to distinguishsuch documents from ordinary self-contained documents, text of this typeis commonly referred to as “hypertext”. Similarly, such links may alsobe made to full motion video sequences or audio sequences etc. and suchan environment may be referred to as “hypermedia”.

An example of a particular recommendation under which signals includecommands executable by browsing clients is the “hypertext mark-uplanguage” (HTML) developed at CERN during the late 1980s and early1990s, which has recently become a part of the Internet through aservice known as the “World Wide Web”. An (HTML) file is essentially anASCII document interspersed with tags for formatting text and displayingimages. The tags graphically represent instructions which are acted uponby a receivers browser, configured to render text or graphics. Thebrowser has full control of how the page is displayed, therefore it ispossible to generate a wide range of page lay-outs from a modest set of(HTML) tags.

The Internet is an extreme example of a network in which many differenttypes of platforms, having various protocols and processingcapabilities, may be interconnected using highly distributed controlinstruction sets. As previously suggested, systems of this type oftenprovide an environment in which a user may “browse” through many filesand structures. Consequently environments to facilitate the receptionand conversion of HTML files are commonly known as “browsers”. Thus, abrowser is an application capable of interpreting and displayingdocuments received in HTML in such a way that the information isdisplayed to the user in a form compatible with the user's availableequipment. Thus, using sophisticated terminal equipment, provided withan appropriate browser, it is possible to display text-based data at aquality that is perceived as being substantially similar to that of fullbandwidth video, while significantly reducing the level of bandwidthrequired in order to distribute the information. Thus, as previouslystated, the purpose of the browser is to substantially improve thequality of the displayed image such that a client user is presented witha high quality video image, if suitable equipment is available. Inaddition, the browser ensures that compatibility is achieved between thelocal system facilities and the transmitted data. Furthermore, hypertextlinks may be defined within the document that are executed by thebrowser so as to make additional documents available in response to userdriven selections.

Clearly, it is only possible for client users to make use of thesesophisticated languages if networks include accessible data sources.HTML files may be stored in file structures that are substantiallysimilar to conventional data formats. Requests are made, via clientbrowsers to applications maintained at a distribution node, commonlyreferred to as “servers”.

Both browsers and servers represent applications which must be madeavailable when requested although, during substantially quiet periods ofoperation, they are not actually required as such. Procedures of thistype, embedded within systems and substantially transparent tooperators, have become known, collectively, as “daemons”. Thus, inoperation, server daemons intermittently interrogate selected ports forincoming signal requests. In response to these requests, servers maymake appropriate housekeeping and security operations, whereafter, ifpossible, the selected file is identified and supplied to the requestingbrowser.

In earlier simple ASCII based text systems, the generation of text in aform suitable for transmission over networks involved relatively easyoperations. Generally, documents could be accessed from text files ordatabases and transmitted directly across the network. At the receiver,the input data would often be buffered, but thereafter it could besupplied directly to line printers, or similar devices, therebyproducing a listing or print out of the transmitted ASCII text.

As previously stated, HTML allows sophisticated formatting structures tobe added to the viewable data so as to present a substantially moreappealing image to client users. However, a major disadvantage of usingsuch systems is that it is necessary to convert source data into HTMLform before it may be transmitted over the network. In practice, such aprocedure is presently performed manually and a significant number ofman hours may be required in order to convert originating text into anappropriate HTML version suitable for distribution throughout thenetwork.

In some environments, such as research environments etc., data may berequired for significant periods of time and under such circumstances itis possible to justify the time and effort required in order to mark upthe text for distribution throughout a network in an appropriate form.However, as is well known in the magazine and newspaper arts, some formsof data, although initially highly valuable, may have very short “shelflives” and, even the next day, they may become virtually worthless.Thus, many forms of existing paper publications may be withheld fromelectronic publishing if the amount of time and effort required toconvert the text-based information into a form suitable for distributionthroughout networks is significantly large. Furthermore, in manysituations, the extent to which the time scale for performing anexercise may be reduced by increasing manpower, may be restricted, giventhat it is only possible for one person to work on one page at any oneinstant.

Traditional marking-up is a laborious task, given that, by its verynature, the actual transmitted data looks very different from the viewedimage. In most situations, it is necessary for a level of marking-up tobe performed, whereafter the data is transferred to a locally situatedbrowser, so that the resulting viewable image may be considered, beforefurther operations are performed. Once created, files are loaded onappropriate storage devices and thereafter made available to requestingcustomers.

Systems are available which facilitate the creation of (HTML) documents.For example, it is possible to process documents generated under wordprocessing systems, such as “Word for Windows”, whereby, in response tomanual operations, (HTML) tags are added to human viewable text. Systemsof this type are sold under the Trade Marks “WebAuthor” and “InternetAssistant”.

It is well known that traditional newspapers tend to change slightlyover a day, as various editions are modified so as to take account ofrecent news items. Thus, very often, a late edition of a newspaper willcarry a different main story to that of earlier editions. Withinelectronic environments, there is an expectation for an even higherlevel of updating and interactivity.

Presently, in order to satisfy this expectation, it would be necessaryto continually update pages manually.

Systems have been proposed in which clients are given the impressionthat a magazine has been tailored to their particular needs. Thus,systems are known in which particular selections may be made therebytuning documents to customer requirements. A problem with knownapproaches of this type is that each page viewed by a client must bepre-created, thereby doubling the number of pages required each time adecision point occurs. Such an approach may have applications inparticular environments but it can be appreciated that as the number ofnotional pages increases, the number of actual pages required within thesystem becomes extremely large and the task of creating and maintainingeach of these pages manually would be highly laborious and very oftenmake the system uneconomic. This is particularly the case when dealingwith publications which, in their conventional paper form, are perceivedas having relatively low value or often no intrinsic value at all. Sucha situation would apply to free newspapers and advertising cataloguesetc.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is providedapparatus for serving output signals from a serving device to aplurality of browsing devices connected to a network, wherein saidoutput signals represent commands executable by each browsing device soas to display viewable data in accordance with the specified pageformat, comprising: means for identifying requests from browsing clientsthat define a request for specified viewable data with commands fordisplaying said data in a specified format; means for reading datarepresenting said viewable data; means for processing said read data soas to combine a representation of said viewable data with executableinstructions; and means for supplying output signals to the requestingbrowsing device derived from said processed data.

In accordance with the said invention, it is not necessary to store alloutput files as predefined HTML files. HTML output instructions aregenerated “on-the-fly” in response to requests made by users.

The apparatus may be used within many network configurations.

In a preferred embodiment, the network is the Internet. Preferably,requests are made by browsing clients in the form of URLs and outputsignals are supplied back to browsing devices in the form of hypertextmark-up language commands.

The apparatus may be used for supplying any type of data to users,particularly text data and graphical data.

Preferably, viewable data is read from conventional databases inresponse to a URL being received, whereafter this data is processed soas to configure it into HTML commands.

In a preferred embodiment, data is identified within databases by meansof an index, such that the relationship between indices and the accessdata may be adjusted. This facilitates the updating of data withoutneeding to generate new HTML code.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic representation of part of the internationaldata distribution network known as the Internet, having a plurality ofservice providers and a plurality of service users; implemented using aplurality of network topologies.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a typical service provider network of thetype shown in FIG. 1; including a local area network and a serving host;

FIG. 3 details the serving host identified in FIG. 2, including aprocessing unit and a random access memory for storing instructionsexecutable by said processing unit;

FIG. 4 represents a processing environment specified by the processingunit and its associated instructions created by the processing unit andits associated memory shown in FIG. 3, including a hypertext transportprotocol daemon and on-line processing procedures in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates the operation of the hypertext transport protocoldaemon identified in FIG. 4 in response to receiving an input URLrequest and including an identification of initialisation procedures andprocedures for performing on-line processing;

FIG. 6 shows requesting user devices, including a processing device anda visual display unit;

FIG. 7 illustrates a typical display shown on the visual display unitidentified in FIG. 6, in response to instructions being supplied to theuser from a server;

FIG. 8 shows an example of instructions in the form supplied to thebrowser, in order to generate the display shown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 details the initialisation procedures identified in FIG. 5;

FIG. 10 details the on-line procedures identified in FIG. 5, includingan indication of procedures for generating HTML pages;

FIG. 11 illustrates the relationship between serving components whenconfigured to supply HTML pages to a requesting device;

FIG. 12 details procedures for generating HTML pages identified in FIG.10, including a step for executing a function string;

FIG. 13 details procedures for executing a function string, including afunction execute step; and

FIG. 14 details function execution steps used to generate lines ofoutput commands of the type identified in FIG. 8.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A diagrammatic representation of part of the Internet is shown inFIG. 1. An international data communication network is provided,represented diagrammatically by region 101. Access to this network isprovided over data channels 102, that are in turn connected to servicenodes 103. Service nodes 103 allow users to gain access to the Internetwith varying levels of transmission bandwidth.

In the example, a local area network 105 is provided with a highbandwidth link 104 to an Internet service provider 103. The network 105includes servers, that supply data to the Internet in response torequests made by users. Presently, users are given access to theInternet over channels providing traffic capacities from 14.4 K bits persecond (telephone dial up) to 100 M bits per second and beyond, whenimplemented using optical techniques.

A low bandwidth user 106 communicates with a service provider 103 viaco-operating modems 107, 108 connected via a transmission cable 109.Many users of this type may access information from a server, such asserver 105.

Network 105 is detailed in FIG. 2. The network comprises a fibredistributed data interface (FDDI) backbone ring 201 having four routers202, 203, 204 and 205 connected thereto. Router 202 is a token ringrouter which routes data between a token ring network 206 and the FDDIbackbone 201. In the example shown in FIG. 2, a first host processingsystem 207 and second host processing system 208 are connected to thetoken ring 206, thereby facilitating communication between said hosts207 and 208, along with communication between said hosts and thebackbone ring 201, via token ring router 202.

A host processing system 209, and a host processing system 210communicate via an ethernet network 211. The ethernet network 211 alsoallows communication between hosts 209 and 210 and the backbone ring 201via ethernet router 203.

The backbone ring also communicates with an asynchronous transfer mode(ATM) network, including a first ATM host 212 and a second ATM host 213.Information for distribution to the Internet is generated by “servingoperations” executed by host 212. This host communicates with thebackbone ring 201 via the ATM router 205, which in turn facilitatescommunication to the Internet itself via Internet router 204 and anInternet line driver 215. This facilitates the transfer of data to anInternet service provider, as shown in FIG. 1.

The present embodiment is directed towards providing HTML encoded data,in accordance with the HTML recommendations implemented over theInternet as a service known as “World Wide Web”. However, the inventionas a whole has broader application, particularly when it is necessary toprocess human viewable data in combination with signals representing aselected display structure, such that commands are executable by remotebrowsing clients.

Serving station 212, as shown in FIG. 2, serves files, processed inaccordance with the established hypertext mark-up language (HTML) tobrowsing clients via the Internet. A browsing client makes a request forthe information to be supplied and this request is identified by aserving station, such as station 212, which responds to said request byreturning the information via the Internet connection to the browsingclient device. Once a request has been received, first signals areprocessed by the serving station which represent the human viewabledata. Second signals are received which represent a selected displaystructure. These two signals are processed in order to produce an HTMLoutput. However, this processing step only takes place after the clientrequest has been received such that the first signals and the secondsignals are processed to produce output signals in the form of clientexecutable instructions which are then served as output signals suitablefor execution by the requesting browser. In this way, many pages of HTMLencoded data may be produced automatically without requiring manualeffort for each individual page. Furthermore, pages may be tailored forspecific user requirements and, in some circumstances, it may bepossible to adjust the extent to which this customization takes place inresponse to the clients own history of use, such that topics of interestare identified automatically and this identification is used in order todirect information of interest to the calling client.

The hardware of serving network 105 is shown in FIG. 2. A request from abrowsing client would be received from the Internet provider via datalink 104, thereby allowing the Internet router to direct the packet ofinformation onto the backbone network 201. This packet would include anaddress so as to identify the processing environment arranged to servethe requested information.

ATM host 212 is detailed in FIG. 3. A central processing unit 301provides a general purpose multi-tasking processing environment,possibly running under the UNIX operating system. The processing unitincludes internal buses to facilitate communication with a mass storagedevice, such as a hard disk drive 302, and a random access memory 303.

Communication with external devices is facilitated through aninput/output (I/O) interface 304 which is in turn connected to typicaluser peripherals such as a keyboard, a monitor and a mouse etc. Inaddition, the I/O device 304 is connected to ATM router 205 via anetwork control circuit 305.

A routine is executed continually by the processing unit 301 to identifyrequests made to a particular I/O port established by the I/O circuit304. Thus, a packet received by the backbone 201 includes an addressthat enables the network control interface 305 such that said controllermay direct the packet to the I/O interface 304. Thus, the packetidentified by the network controller 305 will be supplied to aparticular port of the I/O device 304. The processing unit 301 willidentify the fact that data has been supplied to the relevant port andestablish a connection, effectively placing the system into an activemode. Once placed in its active mode, the packet of data passes throughthe I/O device 304 to become a packet of information which is then heldunder the control of the operating system of the processing unit 301.

In response to receiving this information, the processing unit 301 isarranged to perform the steps identified above, that is, it is arrangedto process first and second signals to produce output signals in theform of client executable instructions. After this processing has takenplace, the resulting output signal is returned for transmission to theInternet via line driver 215, Internet router 204, ATM router 205,network controller 305 and the I/O device 304.

The processing environment provided by the processing unit 301 isillustrated in FIG. 4. An HTTP daemon 401 is executed by the processingenvironment 402 in order to detect requests received by the input/outputdevice 304. In response to detected requests, the processing environment402 is arranged to supply predetermined HTML files 403 to the I/O device304. In addition, it is also possible for the HTTP daemon 401 toidentify common gateway interface binary programs (CGI.BIN programs)which are executable instructions within the processing environment 402and results in identified files being supplied to the I/O device 304.The CGI.BIN files are capable of operating in response to variables,including information identifying the type of browser, the host name ofthe system and details of the client requesting information etc.Facilities of this type are available within existing HTTP servers.However, in addition, it is possible for the daemon to respond torequests where the output HTML file will be produced “on the fly” inresponse to instructions identified as “on-line processing”. Whenrequested, the on-line processing will receive human viewable data froma database 406 in combination with file structures from a file structuresource 407. Thereafter, in response to instructions from the on-lineprocessing system 405, the processing environment 402 will process humanviewable data in combination with file structure data to produce HTMLoutput files for the I/O device 304.

The HTTP daemon procedures identified at 401 in FIG. 4 are detailed inFIG. 5. Initialization procedures are implemented at step 501 on startup, whereafter the appropriate port is interrogated at step 503 afterwaiting for a predetermined period at step 502. The procedures shown inFIG. 5 are executed within a multi-tasking environment, therefore thewait period at step 502 refers to a single task and other tasks willexecute without being affected. At step 504 a question is asked as towhether a user request, in the form of a uniform resource location (URL)is waiting at the interrogated port. If the question asked at step 504is answered in the negative, control is returned to step 502 and theprocess repeated. Thus, as previously stated, the system operates withina multi-tasking environment, such as that provided by the UNIX operatingsystem. Thus, while the particular tasks shown in FIG. 5 repeatedly loopuntil a URL is received, the system is arranged to perform other tasks.

If the question asked at step 504 is answered in the affirmative, to theeffect that a URL has been detected, the URL is processed at step 505,whereafter validation procedures are executed at step 506. Validationprocedures firstly determine whether the URL satisfies an acceptablestructure and thereafter, security provisions may be executed in orderto establish whether the server is permitted to serve the requestingclient. Assuming a valid URL has been supplied to the server, a questionis asked at step 507 as to whether the client has requested a predefinedHTML file. If the question is answered in the affirmative, the requestedfile is supplied to the requesting client at step 508 and control isthen returned to step 502. Alternatively, if the question asked at step507 is answered in the negative, control is directed to step 509.

At step 509 a question is asked as to whether the on-line processingprocedures have been requested. If this question is answered in theaffirmative, the requested file is prepared on-line and supplied to thebrowser at step 510. Alternatively, if the question asked at step 509 isanswered in the negative, control is directed to step 511.

At step 511 a question is asked as to whether an instruction has beensupplied to the effect that CGI.BIN programs are to be executed. If thisquestion is answered in the affirmative, control is directed to step512, resulting in the execution of the identified CGI.BIN instructions.Alternatively, if the question asked at step 511 is answered in thenegative, all possibilities will have been considered and an errormessage is returned at step 514.

Referring to FIG. 1, server network 105 has been described withreference to FIGS. 2 and 3 and the operations executed within saidserver 212 could be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.Information from the server 212 is supplied to requesting clients overthe Internet and files are served to browsers in response to requestsmade by browsers. As previously stated, a browsing client 106 issuesrequests, in the form of URLs via a modem 107. A browsing station 106 isdetailed in FIG. 6 connected to a modem 107, which is in turn connectedto the Internet via communication cable 109. The browsing clienthardware consists of a programmable device such as an IBM personalcomputer configured to operate as a browser in response to instructionsinstalled from local permanent storage medium, usually a hard diskdrive. The system includes a keyboard 601 and a visual display unit 602.An operator issues commands via the keyboard 601 or the mouse 603,causing the browser to issue a URL to the server. The browsinginstructions executed by the terminal shown in FIG. 6 are configured ina form to be compatible with the serving instructions generated by theserver 212. Thus, particular instructions would be installed on theserver 105 and in order for users to gain access to these instructionsit would be necessary to install an appropriate browser for execution onthe user's terminal. Thus, in response to a user issuing commands viathe keyboard 601 or mouse 603, the browser converts these instructionsinto a URL which is in turn processed by the remote server. This in turnresults in HTML instructions being supplied to the browser from thenetwork such that the browser effectively executes these instructions inorder to generate a displayable video signal. The video signal issupplied to the monitor 602, resulting in the human viewable informationbeing displayed on the monitor in a form derived from the HTMLinstructions supplied to the browser as executed by the browser itself.

Monitor 602 is detailed in FIG. 7, showing a typical application of thesystem. In this example, on-line generation of HTML instructions arebeing used to present a home “shopping on-line” catalogue to users, sothat said users may inspect available products and place orders for saidproducts. Thus, the interactive environment ensures that users are keptup to date with available products and prices while at the same timeallowing orders to be placed within a common facility.

The page shown in FIG. 7 represents an initial contents page for aservice identifying itself as a “Home Shopper”, (this is a fictitiouspublication made for the purposes of this description and anysimilarities to existing publications is not intended). The contentspage allows a user to quickly select areas of interest in a structuredway. Thus, from the initial page, selections may be made for sportsgoods, electrical goods, computer goods, children's games and toys etc.,gardening products or clothing. The user's terminal (shown in FIG. 6)includes a mouse 603 and operation of this mouse results in a cursorbeing moved over the viewed image. The image includes a graphical iconfor each of the available categories. Thus, an icon 701 in the form of atennis racquet identifies a region arranged to effect a call to theproducts relating to sports. Thus, the mouse may be manually adjusted soas to position the cursor over this icon. Thereafter, a mouse button maybe operated resulting in execution of a hyperlink to another HTML page.Thus, the identification of the sports icon by the user willautomatically result in a new URL being generated which is in turnsupplied to the server via the network, resulting in a second page beingsupplied to the requesting user. Similarly, a graphical icon 702 of anelectrical drill is provided for the electrical selection. Placing thecursor over this icon and operating a mouse button will result in a newpage being supplied from the server containing electrical goods. Thispage may take the form of a second level contents page allowing furtherselections to be made. Thus, the next page may identify particular typesof electrical goods, electrical DIY goods, white goods or hi-fi goodsetc. Similarly, a button may be selected at this second level resultingin new icons and products being displayed. Thus, electrical DIY goodsmay again be sub-divided down into drills, sanding machines, electricscrewdrivers etc.

A third icon 703 shows a graphical image of a computer and, similarly,selecting this icon will result in a second level contents page beingsupplied identifying types of computer equipment. A fourth icon 704shows a silhouette of children at play and operation of a mouse buttonwith the cursor placed over this icon will result in a call being madeto the server and a new page being generated identifying children'sgames and toys.

A fifth icon 705 shows a pair of sacks and represents gardening suppliesand products, while a sixth icon 706 shows a smartly dressed young ladyas a means of identifying a reference to clothing. Thus, in a similarway, icon 705 or icon 706 may be selected, resulting in a call beingmade to the server for an appropriate page to be supplied to thebrowsing client.

The icons 701 to 706 are high definition graphical images and are storedas. GIF files, although other types of graphical format may be employed.The information used to construct the page is derived from a databaseand all of the information within the database may be modified, possiblyin response to changes in availability and price etc. using conventionaldatabase techniques. Previously, all HTML pages were constructed andstored as such, thereby making them available when requests were issuedby clients. Such an arrangement is similar to that identified at step508 in FIG. 5, where a predetermined file is supplied to a requestinguser. In some situations such an approach provides a perfectly adequatesolution. For example, technical papers and reference books tend not tochange once they have been published and thereafter reference may bemade to these documents for a considerable period of time. However,shopping catalogues tend to change at least seasonally and retailerswould clearly prefer to make special deals available to customers as andwhen they themselves can make arrangements with their suppliers.Clearly, an inability to respond to market changes in this way wouldplace the on-line retailer at a disadvantage when compared totraditional retailing activities. In other situations the shelf-life ofdata may be even lower. Thus, magazines are monthly or weekly, whilemost newspapers are only valid for the particular day of issue. Reducingthe time scale still further, is common practice for newspapers tochange during production, as new news items are received anddevelopments take place. Thus, it is advantageous for editors to be in aposition to make updates to the distributed news as and when changesoccur. Clearly, when news items are broadcast using conventional radiotechniques, the news bulletins are continually updated, thereby placingtraditional news publications at a comparative disadvantage.

In the present embodiment the viewable data is retained on a databaseand signals are read from the database, representing said data, forprocessing in combination with second signals representing the way inwhich the information is to be formatted on the viewed page. In apossible configuration, HTML code could be held as a template with gapstherein for the actual viewable data, such that, in response to arequest being made, the viewable data could be identified and interlacedwith the formatting HTML instructions. However, in the preferredembodiment, a plurality of executable functions are provided at theserver such that, in response to a particular request being made, astring of functions are executed resulting in calls being made toappropriate databases in order to obtain viewable information. Thisviewable information is then processed so as to combine it with HTMLtags, to produce output signals for transmission to browsing clients.

HTML instructions for generating the viewable image displayed on monitor602 are detailed in FIG. 8. Line 1 includes the viewable text (homeshopper) and this has been embedded within tags to identify this word asbeing at the head of the document and as being a title for the wholepage. At line 2 the tag identifies the start of the body of the documentand within the body of the document a sub-heading “Contents Page” isdisplayed surrounded by formatting tags H1. Line 3 consists of an HTMLinstruction to create a horizontal line 700. The instructions from line5 onwards create the icons 701 to 706, along with the hyperlinksassociated with said icons required in order to allow subsequent pagesto be requested by a user.

Each icon is described by two lines, thus icon 701 is defined by lines 5and 6, icon 702 is defined by lines 7 and 8, icon 703 is defined bylines 10 and 11, icon 704 is defined by lines 12 and 13, icon 705 isdefined by lines 15 and 16 and icon 706 is defined by lines 17 and 18.The viewable image is effectively constructed on a line-by-line basis,therefore the instructions effectively originate from left to right, andthen from top to bottom. After the sports icon, the word “sports”, theelectrical icon and the wording “electrical” have been processed, it isnecessary to create a new line and paragraph breaks of this type aregenerated by the p tag, as present at lines 9, 14 and 20. As previouslystated, each selectable icon is generated from two lines, the first ofwhich, for example line 5, defines the hyperlink to another page, bymeans of a URL to the server. The URL defined at line 5 would berecognised as a request for an on-line processing by the server.Subsequent parameters increment from 1000, to 1001, to 1002, to 1003, to1004 and to 1005, so as to uniquely identify the requested page.

The second line for each entry, for example line 6, specifies thelocation of the graphical icon, thus the sports icon has been stored ina file identified as “sport.gif”, while the electrical icon, defined atline 8, has been stored as “elec.gif”, the computer equipment icon hasbeen stored as “comp.gif”, the children icon has been stored as“child.gif”, the gardening icon has been stored as “gard.gif” and theclothing icon has been stored as “clth.gif”. The subsequent codingspecifies the location of the icon within the page so as to complete theoverall formatting requirements.

From a user's point of view, the image displayed on monitor 602 appearslike a high-quality high-definition video image, so as to ensure that auser is not alienated by the system. However, from a transmission pointof view, the image displayed on monitor 602 is generated by theinstructions shown in FIG. 8. This requires a sophisticated level ofprocessing to be performed by the transmitting server and by thereceiving browser but the level of bandwidth required in order toperform the transmission of information is substantially reduced. Thetransmitted output signal consists of eight data bits for each of theASCII characters represented in FIG. 8.

Although the bandwidth requirement for transmitting an HTML file of thetype shown in FIG. 8 is significantly reduced, when compared to videotransmissions, it can be appreciated that the manual generation of afile of the type shown in FIG. 8 would be extremely time consuming,resulting in economic difficulties for anyone wishing to use thetechnology for distributing information having a short shelf-life,having relatively low value or having both a short life and a low value.In accordance with the present system, it is possible for theinformation to be derived from conventional databases and for the HTMLinstructions to be generated on-the-fly, as requests are made bybrowsing clients. Thus, the generation of instructions of the type shownin FIG. 8 becomes an automated technical process performed in responseto strings of code generated functions stored at the server.

HTML output pages are created by assembling portions of HTMLinstructions, so as to create a page suitable for generating outputsignals, of the type shown in FIG. 8.

Each portion of output HTML instructions is created by executing aparticular function. This function is arranged to process data from adatabase or databases in the form of viewable data. This viewable datais then processed under the control of the selected function in order togenerate a portion of output HTML. A format function of this type may beconsidered as the smallest unit of instructions for producing a portionof HTML code.

The system as a whole includes a universal family set of all theavailable functions which may be used in order to generate portions ofHTML code. As the system develops, new functions may be added to thefamily set and it is expected that the HTML standard will be enhanced,thereby requiring additional functions to be created. For any particularapplication, it is likely that not all of the possible functions will berequired, therefore functions may be selected from the universal sets ofall available functions. Selected functions are known to both thebrowser and the server. The browser issues URLs to the server that areunderstood by the server, resulting in the required HTML page beingtransmitted back to the browser.

It is possible that a particular server may be configured to run aplurality of applications and that said applications may require adifferent sub-set of formatting functions derived from a universal setof available functions. In order to accommodate this situation, aninitialisation process is performed by the on-line processing routinesin order to assemble the required formatting functions in a way whichenhances on-line processing speeds.

The formatting functions are arranged to generate small portions of HTMLcode, such that the universal set of formatting functions is minimisedand so that any required output page may be generated by stringingformatting functions together. The pre-processing initialisationprocedures consist of identifying strings of formatting functionsrequired to generate particular lines of HTML code. Thus, a particularline of HTML code is produced by sequentially executing a string offormatting functions and the pre-processing step consists of arrangingsuch function strings such that a particular function string, arrangedto generate a HTML page, may be quickly sought and executed duringon-line operation.

One function string will generate a particular line of HTML code. Inmost applications, not all lines will take up the same format, thereforeit is necessary to generate a plurality of function strings. Thesefunction strings are arranged in a string list, with an indexing pointerbeing provided so as to enable a particular function string to bequickly identified from the list and thereafter executed in order togenerate the output HTML instructions.

Initialisation step 501 is detailed in FIG. 9. At step 901 the system iseffectively activated, which may consist of applying power to the systemresulting in an automatic “boot-up” or may consist of a selection beingmade to perform the particular task, in preference to a previousunrelated task.

At step 902 the operating system is initialised and the systemconfigured so as to facilitate connections to the Internet. Thisinitialisation also includes all standard processes to load peripheraldrivers etc., thereby placing the system in an operational condition.

At step 903 conventional procedures are executed in order to initialisethe HTTP daemon, whereafter procedures are performed to initialise theon-line processing procedures associated with the present embodiment.

At step 904 a question is asked as to whether another function string isto be generated which, on the first iteration, should be answered in theaffirmative. At step 905 the functions required to create the particularstring, drawn from the universal set of available functions, areidentified and at step 906 the string itself is assembled by listing thefunctions for sequential processing with data derived from the databaseor databases. Thus, at step 906 a complete function string is created.

At step 907 the function string generated at step 906 is appended to thestring list created for that particular application and at step 908 anindexing reference is identified within the list of strings. Thus, whena particular call is made for formatting signals, in the form of anexecutable string of functions, the particular call identifies the indexreference within the list of strings, resulting in the selected indexbeing selected from the list and thereafter executed in combination withthe referenced data.

Thereafter, control is returned to step 904 thereby allowing the nextfunction string to be processed. Eventually, all of the function stringswill have been created, appended to the string list and appropriatelyindexed, resulting in the question asked at step 904 being answered inthe negative and control being directed to step 909. At step 909procedures are implemented to initialise databases, so that data may beaccessed from said databases in accordance with conventional techniques.

The on-line file preparation steps, identified in FIG. 5, are detailedin FIG. 10. At step 1001 the incoming URL, previously processed by theHTTP daemon as illustrated in FIG. 5 is buffered within a data structuredefined by the on-line processing routines. The URL will include anelement identifying the data required, an element identifying the typeof formatting required, information relating to the user and a checksum, so as to reject URLs corrupted during transmission.

At step 1002 a question is asked as to whether the check sum is validand if this question is answered in the negative, to the effect that thecheck sum is invalid, control is directed to step 1009 resulting in anerror message being returned to the browsing client device.

Similarly, a question is asked at step 1003 as to whether the useridentification is valid. In order for this question to be answered, itis necessary for a call to be made to a user database which will returnan indication as to whether the user can be identified from thedatabase. If it is found that the user ID is not presently availablefrom the database, routines may be called which enable a user to betreated as a new user and open an appropriate account while remainingon-line. Thus, for example, these routines may request the user tosupply credit card details etc. so that an account may be establishedimmediately.

In addition, the analysis of the user ID at step 1003 allows additionalinformation to be drawn from the user database relating to that specificuser. If a user ID has become invalid, the question asked at step 1003may be answered in the negative, again resulting in control beingdirected to step 1009 and an error message being directed to thebrowsing client.

After the check sum has been validated and the user ID has beenvalidated, a question is asked at step 1004 as to whether the dataidentifier is valid. Identifiers for data are placed within establishedformats, thus if the server is unable to identify the data beingrequested, an error message will be generated at step 1009. Similarly,an identifier for the formatting requested is validated at step 1005,which may again result in an error message being generated at step 1009.

After the data identifier and the format identifier have been validatedat their respective steps, the HTML page or pages are generated at step1006 with reference to the data identifier and the format identifier.Thereafter, with reference to the user ID, the pages are supplied backto the requesting browser via the network.

After pages have been supplied back to the browsing client, the systemis aware of this fact and therefore has information as to what wasactually supplied to a user at a particular time. In some systems, thisinformation may be considered as having no value and therefore nofurther action is taken. However, in alternative systems, particularlywhen products are being sold, marketing information may be considered ashighly valuable, therefore provision is made for this information (i.e.,an indication of what pages were viewed at what particular time) to bewritten back to the user database at step 1008. Thus, over time,information will become available relating to user preferences which,under some circumstances, may be used to modify the operation of thesystem.

It will be appreciated that, during normal operation of the system,various portions of the data will be used on more than one occasion.Thus, in accordance with conventional techniques, data read from adatabase may be cached such that, on a second iteration, the data may bemore readily available, thereby making it unnecessary to make anadditional call to the user database 1000. The system may be configuredsuch that data is held in cache for a predetermined period, say thirtyminutes. Thus, if no use is made of the data within thirty minutes, thecache may be flushed such that, at any time, data held in the cacherepresents a snapshot of users who are actually making use of thesystem.

A diagrammatic representation of processing unit 301 along with itsassociated RAM 303, when configured to execute the on-line processinginstructions 405 is shown in FIG. 11. The hypertext transport protocoldaemon 403 is shown diagrammatically on the left of FIG. 11 and isarranged to supply URLs to an input URL buffer 1101 and to receiveoutput HTML data from an output HTML buffer 1102. The on-line processor310 (processor 301 of FIG. 3 arranged to execute the on-line processingprocedures 405 of FIG. 4) communicates with the user database 1000 asshown in FIG. 10. In addition, the processor 301 is arranged to accessstrings from a string list store 1103, to access viewable text from atext database 1104 and to access viewable graphics from a graphicsdatabase 1105. Each of the databases and the string list store isrelational, in that an index, known to the processor 301 relates to aparticular database entry. Thus, in response to the processor 301pointing to an index, the related data is returned back to the processor301. Thus, the string list store 1103 includes a string index portion1106 and the actual string list portion 1107. Function strings are addedto the string list portion 1107 at step 907 of FIG. 9 with their relatedindex reference being added to portion 1106 at step 908. The processor301 makes a request in terms of identifying a particular indexreference, stored in portion 1106. This index is related to a particularstring held in portion 1107. Thus, it is possible to adjust therelationship between indexes and strings, thereby adjusting the way inwhich the data is actually formatted in response to a particularrequest.

Similarly, text data in a text database 1104 consists of the text dataitself in portion 1108 and related text data indexes in portion 1109.Thus, data is selected from database 1104 by the on-line processor 301issuing a particular index to portion 1109, resulting in the relateddata, from portion 1108, being returned to the on-line processor 301.Thus, it is the indices that are known to the on-line processor 301 andthe relationship between indices and their related text data may beadjusted, so as to change the actual data that is returned in responseto a particular request being made.

The graphics database 1105 is also divided into related portions,consisting of an index portion 1110 and a data portion 1111. Thus, inresponse to the on-line processor 301 identifying a particular referencewithin portion 1110, graphical data is read from portion 1111.

As previously stated, a string read from portion 1107 consists of astring of executable functions. Thus, these functions are supplied tothe on-line processor 301 for execution on said processor. Execution ofa function read from the string list may result in HTML tags beingwritten directly to the output HTML buffer 1102. Alternatively,execution of these functions may result in a call being made to the textdatabase 1104 or to the graphics database 1111. In either event, thecall identifies an index, in portion 1109 or portion 1110, which in turnresults in the related text data or graphics data being supplieddirectly to the output HTML buffer 1102.

Thus, the input URL will identify particular types of formatting andparticular types of data. The formatting information for the URL willresult in particular function strings being read from the string liststore 1103. Thereafter, these functions are executed, with reference tothe data identifiers, resulting in text data and graphics data beingread from the respective databases 1104 and 1105. As the functions areexecuted, output HTML is written to the output HTML buffer 1102 andafter an identified set of functions have been executed, the HTML storedin output buffer 1102 is read, so as to supply the output HTML signalsto the HTTP daemon 403.

In addition to using the user database to confirm user validity and torecord actions made by the user (possibly for billing purposes) theon-line processor 301 may also make use of information read from theuser database in order to adjust the relationship between indexes (1106,1109, 1110) and their associated function strings and data (1107, 1108,1111). Thus, it is possible for the processor to respond to a URL in oneof three ways. Firstly, in a standard mode of operation, the particularoutput HTML produced in response to a particular input URL will remainconstant. The user database is merely used to check user validity and torecord user usage of the system. Thus, output data is not dependent uponuser type and all users are supplied with the same data. However,adjustments may be made to the relationship within databases over time,such that updates or upgrades may be made to take account of thecircumstances.

Thus, for an in-home shopping situation, the availability of goods andchanges in prices may be reflected in database relationships. Similarly,in on-line journals and newspapers, the data relationship may beadjusted in response to editorial control, usually driven by newsevents. Thus, in a news environment, it is not necessary for editors tocreate new HTML documents if they wish to supply new documents in thisformat to users. All the formatting required to produce a page in aparticular form is provided within the formatting functions. Thus, inorder to update a news item, an editor is merely required to updateinformation contained in the database (usually database 1104) inaccordance with conventional database techniques.

As stated above, it is possible for the processor to respond to the URLin one of three possible ways. In a second enhanced mode of operation,it is possible for the user to identify information to the system as ameans of expressing user preferences. Thus, in a home shoppingenvironment for example, it is possible for a user to specify theparticular goods of interest. Thus, for example, one user may only usethe on-line shopping facility when shopping for gardening supplies. Theuser may relay this information to the system, such that the system willconcentrate on gardening products. Thus, on initiating the system, thefirst URL will result in a reference to gardening supplies, therebyavoiding the first screen shown in FIG. 7, where the client has littleinterest. The client will still be able to access all of the availablefunctions. For example, the second screen, containing predominantlygardening products, would include a link for “other areas” and onexecuting this button the user would be effectively supplied with thehigher level page, thereby allowing his selections to branch out intothe other areas of the on-line catalogue. In a more sophisticatedsystem, the user may only be interested in electrical equipment andsports equipment, such that a first screen would display the sports iconfollowed by particular types of sport, in combination with theelectrical icon followed by particular electrical products. Thus, it ispossible for the user to specify preferences such that the systembecomes more tailor-made and specific to that particular user.

Such an approach may also be used in news publications. For example,some users may be interested predominantly in financial news whileothers may be interested in sports news. Thus, with this informationprogrammed into the user database, the order in which pages are suppliedto a user may be adjusted in accordance with preferences specified bythe user. It will also be possible for users to specify whether thematerial is being read by children or by adults and for appropriate pageselections to be made. Pages designed for children could be writtenusing limited vocabularies and include a higher concentration ofhyperlinks, allowing children to rapidly access related information. Inmany situations, some pages would be appropriate for both types of usersand editors would have control as to what is made available at whatlevels. Similarly, higher charges could be made for particular types ofinformation and, given information derived from the user database, lowpriced pages or high priced pages could be supplied as appropriate.

In a third mode of operation, identified as a recursive mode ofoperation, it is not necessary for a user to identify their ownpreferences in order for adjustments to be made to the actual nature ofpages returned to users. The system records a history of usage andthereafter analyses this information in order to determine therelationship between selections made by a browser and the actual datareturned back to the customer. Thus, after a number of uses, it maybecome apparent that a user is only interested in clothing and has shownvery little interest in other products available from the catalogue. Ondetecting this interest, it will be possible for the system to presentthe clothing page as the first page sent to the user on initiation.Moving on from this, it may be possible to identify particular types ofclothing that are of interest to a user. Thus, for example, a user maybe only interested in designer labels and having identified thisinformation, it would be possible for the system to give a higherpriority to special offers available in this area. Thus, information maybe supplied to the system to the effect that a new limited edition hasbeen produced which may be of particular interest to a minority of usersof the system. A region may be provided within an initial page toprovide special information or advertisements. A particular type ofinformation or advertisement supplied to this region will depend uponcustomer history. Thus, if information has been supplied to the effectthat a limited edition has become available, the system willautomatically know which users are interested in obtaining items of thistype. Thus, when this particular sub-set of users log on to the system,the relevant information will be supplied back to them automatically.Similarly, an advertisement for a designer jacket, for example, will notbe sent to a user who has previously only shown an interest in computerequipment.

The system will be capable of identifying situations in which particularproducts have been browsed for significant periods of time by users. Thesystem could be programmed to identify this fact and make an appropriatemodification when the user next logs on to the system. For example,having detected that a particular user has shown an interest in aparticular product, it may be assumed that a customer is interested inbuying this product but, as yet, has not made a final decision. Thesystem may use this information in an attempt to persuade the client tomake the purchase. Thus, the system may be programmed to offer discountsto clients such that, on the next use of the system, an advertisementappears to the effect that the product of interest has been reduced by acertain amount. Thus, it is possible that users would perceive this asan offer being made to all clients, with the fact that they have aparticular interest in that product being seen as a coincidence. Clearlythis is not a coincidence and each user would be offered something whichthe system had detected as being to their liking.

It can be appreciated that the possibilities are endless. This is allprovided by the fact that the actual HTML pages supplied back to usersare generated “on-the-fly” by indexing locations within databases. Therelationship between an index and an item may be adjusted so that thesame instructions may be used to access different data with on-goingchanges. Similarly, the system may identify the particular userconcerned and, in response to this information, select an index whichdiffers from the normal index selected. Alternatively, a particularindex identified by a user may be treated by the system as a “wildcard”, with an actual selection of an index being made in response toinformation stored about the particular user.

Operations performed by processor 301, as illustrated in FIG. 11, aredetailed in FIG. 12. At step 1201 a data string index is identifiedenabling the processor 301 to make a call to an appropriate database. Atstep 1202 a call to the database is made, by issuing the string indexedto the appropriate database, resulting in the data string itself beingreturned from the database to the processor 301. Thus, as shown in FIG.11, the read operation performed at step 1202 would result in an indexcommand being issued from the processor 301 to the indexed portion 1109of database 1104, whereafter the appropriate data, from portion 1108, isreturned back to the processor 301.

At step 1203 a function string index is identified, from the formattinginformation present in the URL and at step 1204 the indexed functionstring is read from the string list store 1103.

At step 1205 the function string read from the string list store 1103 isexecuted, resulting in HTML code being written to the output HTML buffer1102, whereafter, at step 1206, a question is asked as to whetheranother function string has been identified. If this question isanswered in the affirmative, control is returned to step 1201 and theprocedures identified above are repeated. Eventually, the question askedat step 1206 will be answered in the negative, resulting in thecompletion of procedures within step 1006.

Step 1205, for the execution of a string function, is expanded in FIG.13. A string of functions has been read from the string list store andthis string of functions is executed, sequentially function by function,at step 1205.

At step 1301 the next function, i.e. the first function on the firstiteration, is read from the function string. At step 1302 thisparticular function is executed, resulting in a unit of HTML code beingwritten to the output HTML buffer 1102 at step 1303. At step 1304 aquestion is asked as to whether a function includes a further functionalstep and if answered in the affirmative, control is returned to step1302 for the next function step to be executed. Thus, a functional stepmay be considered as the smallest portion of a function that results ina write to the HTML buffer.

After all the executable steps of the function have been completed, thequestion asked at step 1304 will be answered in the negative, resultingin a question being asked at step 1305 as to whether another function ispresent in the string. If another function is present in the string, thequestion asked at step 1305 will be answered in the affirmative, therebyreturning control to step 1301. Thus, steps 1301, 1302, 1303 and 1304are repeated in order to execute the next executable function within thestring read from the string list store.

Eventually, all of the functions making up the string will have beenexecuted, resulting in the question asked at step 1305 being answered inthe negative so as to complete procedures within step 1205.

The functions executed over steps 1302 to 1304 will have been created soas to generate the particular HTML code required. An example of afunction is shown in FIG. 14 and it should be appreciated that similartechniques are employed in order to generate all of the available typesof HTML code. The function shown in FIG. 14, that may be considered asbeing executed at step 1303 of FIG. 13, is used to generate the firstline of the example HTML code shown in FIG. 8.

A first functional step, shown as step 1401, writes the tags“<HEAD><TITLE>” as the start of line 1. These tags are written to theoutput HTML buffer at step 1303 and thereafter the question asked atstep 1304 would be answered in the affirmative, resulting in the nextfunctional step being executed at step 1302. In the example shown inFIG. 14, this would consist of the execution of step 1402, consisting ofa write to the output HTML buffer of the viewable data “Home Shopper”.This particular portion of the code is derived by making a call to thetext database. Thus, the write instruction consists of a database index.Database 1104 is identified, along with index position 001. Thus, it isknown that at index position 001 in the text database 1104 the title ofthe first page has been stored. Thus, as part of an editing procedure itmay be decided that the title should be changed to “Shopping at Home”for example. When a change of this type is required, it is onlynecessary for an editor to make a change to the database entry stored atindex position 001 in database 1104. This can be achieved usingconventional database techniques, without any specialist knowledgerequired of the HTML language used to transmit the information over theInternet. The operation of the system is unaffected by this change oftitle and the procedure shown at step 1402 will execute as required,irrespective of the nature of the actual title text contained within thedatabase.

Thus, at step 1402 database 1104 is identified, an address to thatdatabase is made in the form of identifying index 001 and text isreturned to the processor 301. This text is then supplied to the nextlocation of the output HTML buffer 1102 at step 1303 and control isdirected to step 1304, where the question is again asked as to whetheranother functional step is present. Again, this question will beanswered in the affirmative, resulting in control being returned to step1302 so that the next functional step may be executed. As shown in FIG.14, the next executable step consists of step 1403 which will result in“</TITLE></HEAD>” being written to the output HTML buffer 1102 at step1303. Again, the question will be asked at step 1304 as to whetheranother functional step is present and on this occasion the questionwill be answered in the negative, resulting in control being directed tostep 1305.

Thus, it can be seen that a particular function has resulted in threewriting operations to the output HTML buffer in the form of a tag,viewable text obtained from a database, followed by another HTML tag.This process is repeated for each of the functions contained within thefunction string until the full page of HTML code has been generated andwritten to the HTML buffer 1102. Signals from the HTML buffer 1102 arethen supplied to the HTTPD 403 which in turn supplies the signals to thebrowsing client via the Internet.

The databases for storing text and graphics are of conventional types,having mechanisms for requests to be made for information to besupplied. In particular, requests to databases are made using thestructured query language (SQL) and data is obtained from the databasesby generating an SQL enquiry.

While the invention has been described in connection with what ispresently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments,it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to thedisclosed embodiments, but on the contrary, is intended to cover variousmodifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit andscope of the appended claims.

1. A method of transmitting information over a network to a browsingdevice, wherein said information is divided into information types andfor some of said information types a higher charge is made, comprisingthe steps of: receiving a request for information from said browsingdevice, wherein said request includes a user identifier; maintaininguser preferences indicating a preferred information type for each of aplurality of users; reading said user preferences to identify a specificinformation type in response to said user identifier; returninginformation to said browsing device, wherein said returned informationis of said specific information type; and submitting charges based onsaid specific information type.
 2. A method according to claim 1,wherein said user preferences additionally indicate at least one topicof interest.
 3. A method according to claim 2, wherein said topic ofinterest relates to goods for sale.
 4. A method according to claim 2,wherein said topic of interest relates to categories of news.
 5. Amethod according to claim 1, further including the step of maintaining ahistory of usage for each of said users and wherein said userpreferences are obtained from said history of usage.
 6. A methodaccording to claim 1, wherein said request further includes a formatidentifier.
 7. A method according to claim 1, wherein said request is inthe form of an HTTP request.
 8. A method according to claim 7, whereinsaid request is a URL.
 9. A method of transmitting information over anetwork to a browsing device, wherein said information is divided intoinformation types and for some of said information types a higher chargeis made, comprising the steps of: receiving a request for informationfrom a browsing device, wherein said request is in the form of an HTTPrequest and includes a user identifier and a format identifier;maintaining user preferences indicating a preferred information type foreach of a plurality of users; reading said user preferences to identifya specific information type in response to said user identifier;returning information to said browsing device, wherein said returnedinformation is of said specific information type; and submitting chargesbased on said specific information type.
 10. Apparatus for transmittinginformation over a network, comprising a processor, storage and anetwork connection, wherein said information is divided into informationtypes and for some of said information types a higher charge is made,and said processor is configured to: receive a request for informationfrom a browsing device via said network connection, wherein said requestincludes a user identifier; maintain user preferences indicating apreferred information type for each of a plurality of users; read saiduser preferences to identify a specific information type in response tosaid user identifier; return information to said browsing device,wherein said returned information is of said specific information type;and submit charges based on said specific information type. 11.Apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said user preferencesadditionally indicate at least one topic of interest.
 12. Apparatusaccording to claim 11, wherein said topic of interest relates to goodsfor sale.
 13. Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said topic ofinterest relates to categories of news.
 14. Apparatus according to claim10, further including the step of maintaining a history of usage foreach of sad users and wherein said user preferences are obtained fromsaid history of usage.
 15. Apparatus according to claim 10, wherein saidrequest further includes a format identifier.
 16. Apparatus according toclaim 10, wherein said request is in the form of an HTTP request. 17.Apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said request is a URL.